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Andrew Lang, a contemporary of Tylor’s, criticized the
emphasis on misinterpreted experience, arguing that “savage
man” might not have been the irrational observer Tylor made
him out to be. By drawing comparisons between ethnographic
accounts of supernatural beliefs and contemporary reports of
psychic phenomena, such as those investigated by the Society
for Psychical Research (SPR), Lang demonstrated that the per-
ceived cognitive gap between Europeans and non-Europeans
was not quite as wide as had initially been thought. If modern,
rational Europeans of high respectability, like the early mem-
bers of the SPR, had experienced phenomena they considered
to be supernormal in nature, then why should the experiences
and beliefs recorded in the ethnographic literature not also be
taken seriously? Lang suggested, in contrast to Tylor’s misin-
terpretation theory, that supernatural beliefs might have their
foundations in genuine anomalous experiences. Indeed, in his
book The Making of Religion, Lang went so far as to hypoth-
esize that paranormal experiences might have been major con-
tributing factors in the early development of religious ideas.
In other words, Lang suggested that supernatural beliefs need
not be considered irrational if they were founded upon genu-
ine paranormal experiences.
Of the two interpretations of psychical experience and
belief proposed by Tylor and Lang, however, it was Tylor’s that
became dominant within academic anthropology.
Social-Functionalism
Although Tylor’s interpretation became orthodox within
anthropology, there still remained room for a theory that
explained why apparently irrational beliefs in ghosts, witch-
craft, magic, spirit possession, and the like were so persistent
among human societies if they were nothing more than delu-
sional. This theory came in the form of social-functionalism,
that is the idea that supernatural beliefs persist only because
they perform specific functions for a given society. This posi-
tion developed from the writings of Emile Durkheim, the
founding father of French sociology, who argued that religious
beliefs and practices are essentially a form of social glue that
help to ensure the cohesion and solidarity of social groups.
Perhaps the best example of a social-functional approach is
I.M. Lewis’ theory of peripheral spirit possession, which sees
spirit possession as a means for repressed individuals, usually
women, to protest against their conditions in a socially accept-
able manner. Similar models have been applied to other sys-
tems of supernatural belief such as witchcraft, for example,
which has been interpreted as a means by which incidences of
misfortune can be understood and dealt with, and as a meth-
od for ensuring civility between group members for fear of
Early Pioneers
Since its earliest incarnation in the nineteenth century, anthro-
pology has expressly concerned itself with attempting to under-
stand the supernatural and religious beliefs of human beings
around the world. Edward Burnett Tylor, the first professor of
anthropology at Oxford University, argued that religion could
best be understood through an examination of the supernat-
ural beliefs of “primitive” cultures, because in beliefs about
spirits and supernatural powers could be found the seeds of
the great world religions. These beliefs, Tylor thought, could
be explained by assuming that so-called “savages” were irra-
tional and, as a consequence, unable to make accurate infer-
ences about their experiences of the world around them. He
suggested, for example, that primitive man had great difficulty
distinguishing real death from sleep and trance states, and so,
from observations of such phenomena, erroneously posited
the existence of a personal life-force, or spirit, that was able
to both enter and leave the physical body under certain condi-
tions. Progressing from the inference that human beings pos-
sessed an immaterial spirit, Tylor argued that it was not a huge
leap to believing that other entities, such as animals, plants
and rocks, also possessed spirits/souls, and thus the supernat-
ural realm was born.
Anthropology and the Supernatural:
From Spirits to Consciousness
Jack Hunter
Andrew Lang

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accusations of witchcraft. The social-functional perspective,
then, combined with the Tylorean misinterpretation hypothe-
sis, seemed to provide an all encompassing explanation for the
persistence of apparently irrational supernatural beliefs.
But the social-functional approach fundamentally ignored
both the significance of subjective experience for believers and
the possibility that genuine psi phenomena might exist, assum-
ing from the outset that the objects of supernatural beliefs, in
line with Tylor’s view, could possess no form of independent
ontological reality. So, while social-functionalists were happy
to accept that ritual practices engaging the world of the super-
natural might perform an essential social function, they were
unwilling to entertain the possibility that the supernatural
realm was anything more than delusional fantasy or the prod-
uct of outright fraud. It wasn’t until the late 1960s and early
1970s that certain anthropologists began, like Andrew Lang
over 60 years previously, to question whether the functionalist
framework really was the optimum model for understanding
supernatural belief.
Castaneda’s Influence
For many it was the publication, in 1968, of Carlos Castaneda’s
infamous book The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of
Knowledge that rekindled the supernatural debate in anthro-
pology. Castaneda’s book describes his experiences as a young
anthropology graduate, learning the ways of the brujo (sor-
cerer/medicine-man/shaman) with Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui
Native American in Mexico. The book documents the author’s
experiences while consum-
ing sacred psychoactive
plants, as well as other
anomalous experiences
alleged to be caused by
rival sorcerers, and presents
them in an autobiographi-
cal ethnographic account.
There has been a great
deal of debate as to whether
the book represents a gen-
uine ethnographic descrip-
tion of real events and
experiences, or whether it
is simply a work of imagi-
native fiction. Nevertheless,
and regardless of its verac-
ity, the influence of the
book on subsequent anthropologists was enormous and
inspired many to follow similar courses of ethnographic field-
work in other societies. Once ethnographers began to partic-
ipate, in an immersive manner, with the belief systems and
ritual practices of their hosts, a whole new world of experi-
ence emerged as a valid field of ethnographic inquiry. Such an
approach was to become known as the anthropology of experi-
ence, or the anthropology of consciousness.
Anomalous Experiences in the Field
Ethnographers such as Joseph Long, Bruce Grindal, Paul
Stoller, and Edith Turner composed detailed ethnographies
in which they described not only the beliefs and practices of
their hosts, but also their own anomalous experiences while
immersed in different cultural systems. Joseph Long docu-
mented an unusual apparition in Jamaica in which a self-
propelled coffin was seen to move through a busy market
square accompanied by vultures and a disembodied voice.
Bruce Grindal vividly described the re-animation of a
corpse during a traditional Sisala death divination in Ghana.
“What I saw in those moments,” he wrote, “was outside the
realm of normal perception. From both the corpse and goka
came flashes of light so fleeting that I cannot say exactly where
they originated... A terrible and beautiful sight burst upon me.
Stretching from the amazingly delicate fingers and mouths of
the goka, strands of fibrous light played upon the head, fingers,
and toes of the dead man. The corpse, shaken by spasms, then
rose to its feet, spinning and dancing in a frenzy.”
Paul Stoller became a sor-
cerer’s apprentice amongst the
Songhay in Niger, only to be
forced to return home for fear of
magical attacks from rival sorcer-
ers. “Suddenly I had the strong
impression that something had
entered the house,” wrote Stoller.
“I felt its presence and I was fright-
ened. Set to abandon the house to
whatever hovered in the darkness,
I started to roll off my mat. But
my lower body did not budge...
My heart raced. I couldn’t flee.
What could I do to save myself?
Like a sorko benya, I began to recite the genji how, for Adamu
Jenitongo had told me that if I ever felt danger I should recite
this incantation until I had conquered my fear... I began to feel
a slight tingling in my hips... The presence had left the room.”
Edith Turner described her cli-
mactic experience of a spirit-form
at the culmination of the ihamba
healing ceremony of the Ndembu in
Zambia. “I saw with my own eyes
a giant thing emerging out of the
flesh of her back,” she wrote. “This
thing was a large gray blob about six
inches across, a deep gray opaque
thing emerging as a sphere. I was
amazed—delighted. I still laugh
with glee at the realisation of hav-
ing seen it, the ihamba, and so big!
We were all just one in triumph.
The gray thing was actually out there, visible, and you could
see [the witchdoctor’s] hands working and scrabbling on the
back—and then the thing was there no more.”
Paul Stoller
Edith Turner

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Transpersonal Anthropology and the Anthropology of
Consciousness
Charles Laughlin defines transpersonal experiences as “those
experiences that bring the cognized-self into question” and
transpersonal anthropology as “the cross-cultural study of the
psychological and sociocultural aspects of transpersonal expe-
rience.” A transpersonal anthropologist is, therefore, “one
that is capable of participating in
transpersonal experience; that is,
capable of both attaining what-
ever extraordinary experiences
and phases of consciousness that
enrich the religious system, and
relating these experiences to
invariant patterns of symbolism,
cognition and practice found
in religions and cosmologies all
over the planet.”
Through participating fully
in the host culture, to the extent
of accessing culturally relevant
experiences, the transpersonal
anthropologist is able to gain a
perspective on a particular culture that could not be attained
through any normal means of objective observation. Writing
on his experiences with the Yanomami of the Orinoco Valley,
Zeljko Jokic, for example, describes how his own subjective
experiences under the influence of the hallucinogenic snuff yopo
represented a point of intersubjective entry into the Yanomamo
life-world. In attaining such culturally significant experiences
as, for example, witness-
ing the extraction of a
malignant spirit from
the back of an afflicted
patient, the ethnogra-
pher is essentially, at
least for the duration of
the experience, becom-
ing one with their
informants. Following
her experience during
the ihamba ceremony,
Edith Turner explained
how, in order to fully
understand a culture,
“anthropologists need
training to see what the
Natives see.”
Methodologies and Approaches
In order to “see what the Natives see,” and to make use of
transpersonal experiences as ethnographic data in the anthro-
pology of consciousness, it is necessary to immerse oneself
fully in the culture under investigation.
Fiona Bowie proposes a methodology, which she terms
“cognitive empathetic engagement,” as a means to achieve this
goal. Cognitive empathetic engagement is defined as a method
by which “the observer...approaches the people or topic stud-
ied in an open-minded and curious manner, without presup-
positions, prepared to entertain the world view and rationale
presented and to experience, as far as possible and practical, a
different way of thinking and interpreting events.”
Patric Giesler has proposed a methodology more geared
towards the verification of psi phenomena as objective events
in an approach referred to as “psi in process,” which “stud-
ies ostensible paranormal functioning in a natural cultural or
subcultural context with the rigor of experimental control and
statistical evaluation...without (or minimally) altering or dis-
turbing the context.”
In a brief survey, Michael Winkelman suggests that there
is no single, unified anthropology of consciousness, but rather
that there are several “anthropologies of consciousness” deal-
ing with different aspects of the interaction between con-
sciousness and culture. Winkelman proposes a “five-field”
approach including: paleontology (examining the evolution of
consciousness); linguistics (examining the role of language in
consciousness and experience); archaeology (examining differ-
ent forms of consciousness in the past of modern humans);
cultural anthropology (examining the interface between con-
sciousness and culture); applied anthropology (using research
into altered states of consciousness for real-world applications).
Conclusions
Writing at the dawn of the twentieth century, the philosopher
and early pioneer of psychology, William James, summed up
what I consider to be, potentially, the most important contri-
bution of the anthropology of consciousness to our under-
standing of the universe as a whole when he wrote that “no
account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves
these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.” The
unusual phenomena investigated by parapsychologists, and the
range of altered states of consciousness and supernatural beliefs
encountered during ethnographic fieldwork, are aspects of the
world in which we live and the cultures that have developed
in it, and as such should not be ignored by the social sciences.
Although we are a long way from the acceptance of para-
normal phenomena by anthropology, it is promising to see
that both contemporary anthropologists and parapsycholo-
gists are coming to realize the mutual benefits each discipline
can receive from the type of interdisciplinary collaboration
suggested by Andrew Lang at the end of the nineteenth cen-
tury. Over the course of the discipline’s development, anthro-
pology has shifted its focus from attempting to explain away
supernatural beliefs to an approach that accepts the signifi-
cance of subjective anomalous experience in the development
of such beliefs without applying a reductive interpretation.
This is a positive step forward for our understanding of the
ways in which consciousness and culture interact, and I look
forward to further research in this direction.
“No account of
the universe in
its totality can be
final which leaves
these other forms
of consciousness
quite disregarded”
—William James
Zeljko Jokic

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JACK HUNTER is an M.Litt/PhD student in Social Anthropology at the
University of Bristol, UK. His research looks at contemporary trance
mediumship in Bristol, and focuses on themes of personhood, perfor-
mance, altered states of consciousness, and anomalous experience.
He is the founder and editor of the peer-reviewed journal Paranthropol-
ogy: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal. In 2010
he received the Eileen J. Garrett scholarship from the Parapsychology
Foundation, and in 2011 he received the Schmeidler award from the
Parapsychological Association.
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